Computer-Age Tots Trading Building Blocks for Software

Published: February 13, 1994

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Many earlier children's programs, she said, were nothing more than electronic drill-and-practice workbooks, and gave parents the wrong idea about what computers could offer. "You were right or wrong, and that is not appropriate for pre-schoolers," Professor Gardner said. Instead, the newest generation of software for pre-schoolers focuses on encouraging exploration and rewarding curiosity rather than penalizing wrong answers.

In addition to Broderbund, which makes Kidpix, Playroom and the new Backyard, the leaders in the industry include Edmark (Millie's Math House and Thinking Things); Knowledge Adventure (Kid's Zoo and Dinosaur Adventure); Humongous Entertainment (Putt-Putt Joins the Parade); and Electronic Arts, which is involved in a project with the Children's Television Workshop, the creator of "Sesame Street," to develop software based on the show's characters. Last week, Electronic Arts agreed to buy Broderbund in a $400 million deal.

"Developmentally appropriate software provides young children the opportunity to be in command," said Dr. Bowman of the Erikson Institute. "Like paint programs: the child has the vision. He or she has to tell the computer what to do, and that's a very important lesson to learn. There's room for the child to have all sorts of different strategies, so the machine is an active agent of their imaginations."

Rob and Eileen Wunderlich of Detroit recently bought a second home computer, for their two daughters to have as their own. Charlotte, their 3-year-old, "spends 90 percent of her computing time in Paintbrush, dabbling around, and she really likes her alphabet game," Mr. Wunderlich said. Her big sister, Samantha, who is 6, "is really taken with Dinosaur Adventure; she can sit there for ever," he said.

"Samantha could play for hours," he added, "and I have no problem with that, because you have to think."

Research has found that young children have relatively long attention spans at the computer, "sort of comparable to block play," Professor Gardner said, adding, "Where many children are zombies in front of the television set, the computer engages them."

Any child who spends a great deal of time at a computer screen runs some health risks, roughly the same as those from playing video games for too long or sitting close to a television set for long periods.

"I'm not aware of any particular safety issues involving children, other than making sure they don't stand to close or work too intently," said Raymond M. Soneira, a physicist and former researcher at A.T.& T. Bell Laboratories who founded Sonera Technologies Inc., in Rumson, N.J. "These are the classic ergonomic issues involving monitors." Grass- Roots Research

Along the road to creating successful programs, children provide a central role. Many software companies rely extensively on research with children of various ages, conducted at local schools and in testing laboratories, as well as on interviews with parents and teachers. And one thing they have clearly learned is how to describe their programs in appropriate educational language.

Mr. Turner, formerly of Knowledge Adventure, said his goal was for "a computer to be an incredibly patient, learned teacher."

The company's Kid's Zoo, designed for 3-year-olds to 6-year-olds, provides information about where different animals live and also offers matching games. In one, a child tries to choose which of four animals made a particular sound.

In another, the child must choose which of eight animals matches a particular characteristic displayed on the screen. The easy ones are black-and-white stripes and a brown hump (answers appear at your local zoo); the harder ones include the pink-and-white feathers of a flamingo's side and the mottled brown foot of a lizard.

While many nursery schools are installing their first computers, others are replacing old Apple IIc models with high-powered machines that would do a business proud. At the Alcott Montessori School in Westchester County, N.Y., which has programs in Scarsdale and Ardsley, "We're putting in a network of machines, multimedia, after some fund raising through book sales and toy sales," said Beth Farkis, assistant director of the school. "We bought two machines, and a parent donated one, to which we're adding a sound card and a network card." The latter two enable a computer to convert an electronic signal to sound and to connect with other computers, respectively.

And at the Harbor Montessori School in Gig Harbor, Wash., an hour south of Seattle, six new computers have been installed, all with sound and two with compact-disk players, said Grace Lang, a parent who helps run the school. "In a school survey, parents said computing and foreign language were their top two priorities, and nothing else was close," Ms. Lang said.

If this all sounds high-powered, note that when Ms. Lang suggested to her 5-year-old son, Austin, that he look at the Peter Rabbit software, he told her, "That's for the little kids -- the 2- and 3-year-olds."

Photo: Computer software is embracing younger children more than ever before. At Knowledge Adventure, a software company in La Crescenta, Calif., 9-year-old Erik Rickert, left, his sister Nikki, 6, brother Matthew, 7, and 5-year-old Lauren Chesis, right, attend a computer focus group for kids. (George Brich for The New York Times) (pg. 32)